Kajuraho - Day 3
(This post is out of sequence! Holding a baby and meeting Deepu's family trumped everything - but we had one last Kajuraho adventure.)
There is a Nature Preserve and Tiger Park about a half hour
drive from us and although we know there is a slim chance of seeing a tiger, we
decide to do the early morning tiger hunt. Just after 5:30 a.m. we’re fetched in a Jeep by Khan and, like so much that has happened to us in India, we’re not certain how much this
going to cost or exactly how it’s going to play out but so far everything’s
been just fine . . . and this will be too!
At 5:30 it’s flippin cold. We’re wearing every warm thing we can layer on and are still
freezing. We get to the Park, and
this is nothing short of hilarious – there are no less than nine Indian men (I
think they were guides or drivers or who knows what) clustered around the
check-in counter, all talking at once, one woman clerk attempting to get things
sorted.
Tim and Khan spend some
time in the clot of males and Tim emerges having paid half of what we expected
to pay clutching the magic entrance ticket.
We didn’t see a tiger. We drove around for almost 4 hours (3 of them freezing our buns off in our jeep which has been converted into an open-air viewing vehicle). We did see: spotted deer, antelope, some spectacular birds, monkeys, hyenas, and one crocodile (I’m still not sure about that sighting – I’ve never heard of crocs living in non-estuarine rivers). Great guide from the Park, Singh, very articulate and eagle-eyed.
A hyena who appeared to be finishing his breakfast.
Our wonderful guide, Singh - very knowledgeable - his English was excellent and he had a bird book (Audubon in Hindi?). We had no idea there were so many gorgeous birds here!
We are grinning because the sun is finally out and we have stopped shaking!!
End of Kajuraho, town of sweet surprises . . . off to Agra
early tomorrow morning.
Wonderful pictures, Carol and Tim. Thanks for sharing your journey!
ReplyDeleteEd H.